SportsPrep Live

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Graydon Prescott 0:17
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of sports prep live, sports prep live, where we unbox the bike and talk excellence in athletics.

Graydon Prescott 0:35
Welcome back to another episode of sports prep live, everybody. I am your host, grade and Prescott, and my question for today is, what makes sport interesting? Because there's been so much in sport in the last week that has drawn the eyes of millions around the country, around the world, in multiple different sports. But on this show today, we're gonna focus primarily on the WNBA because there's a lot to unpack here. So we've got KB, and we're gonna go over so far because there's one game left in the WNBA semifinals. Yes, and okay, I'm just, I'm just gonna throw it out there. This has been a crap shoot on both sides. Now, the ACES fever series hasn't been a crap shoot because of controversy, but the ACES lose game one at home. Right then they blow the fever out in game two. Game Three, the ACES win Asia. Wilson has her worst game, one of her worst games of the season, but they still win the game. Jackie Young was marvelous. They win it by 11. Then there's game four, where the ACES lose that game which was played yesterday. Yes, yes. Plate played yesterday, Sunday. They just lose this game before now, why did they lose this game before they shot better from the field than the fever did. They made more threes than the fever did. They were more efficient on their twos than the fever were. Now, no no not taking anything away from the Indiana Fever. Alia, Boston was brilliant. Well, she played her best game of the season. Chelsea Mitchell did her thing. 25 points out of her I say did her thing because 25 is becoming routine for her. But Aaliyah, Boston was sensational, and Asia Wilson had 31 points on eight boards. She played great. Now, why do I say that this game was controversial? Well, in my opinion, the ACES were robbed of a victory. Now, why do I say that the ACES were robbed for a victory yesterday, Sunday night, the Las Vegas aces shot 11 or eight for 11 on free throws, right? You know what the Indiana Fever shot I do, but go ahead and tell the audience, 26 for 3434 Yes, that is 23 more free throw attempts in a seven point win, the ACES made more shots on the same amount of shots attempted, 33 of 67 to 30 of 67 the ACES made more threes, nine for 23 to four for 15, nine for 23 is 13% better. That's the aces. The Aces shot a better percentage from the field. They were out rebounded. The aces out assisted the fever. 22 to 14. The Aces had more blocks. The Aces had more force turnovers, but the fever shot 23 more free throws, and that's the reason they won the basketball

K.B. 3:04
game. It very well could be. But look, I think one of a counter argument to that is the game before there was a disparity, and Aliyah Boston actually came to the podium after the game and called it out.

Graydon Prescott 3:18
No, okay, well, Aaliyah Boston was wrong, because the game before the ACES shot 14 for 17 on free throws and the fever, who shot poorly from the free throw line, shot 13 for 21 they shot more.

K.B. 3:29
Okay, well, then I don't know if the The complaint was specific to Asia, but I do know that Asia made mention of some comments that Aaliyah Boston had made post game, and so Asia felt like the kind of imbalance that happened in this last game yesterday may have been in response to some of the critique that happened with respect to game three, having said that there are going to be vicissitudes. There are going to be vicissitudes in between one game and the other, and so there's going to be vicissitudes, being ups and downs changes. And we see that in all of sport, there is something to a home court advantage. Now I do believe that a home court advantage should be all about the lift, the adrenaline, the height, the build that you get from the fans, the refereeing should be consistent across all platforms, across all games, so whether you are in Indianapolis or whether you are in Las Vegas, and irrespective of sport. But for now, we're talking about the WNBA. The thing that should be uniform, the thing that should be the same, thing that should be consistent, is the referee. The thing that should be a variable, right, is that lift that you get from the home court. So there should still should be some advantage in playing a home court game versus an away game, but that advantage should not be in the way that the game is officiated. And I think that's a larger criticism that the WNBA has faced this entire season and probably all. Of last season as well, their officiating does seem to be subpar relative to the NBA. Subpar is an understatement. Indeed, the NBA college basketball, maybe even high school basketball. It's really bad for a professional sport, and a part of that has to do with the fact that once the officials in the WNBA become seasoned or good, or however they evaluate them, they have an opportunity to move on and go to the NBA, leaving behind the people who are more experienced or inexperienced, the novices, the people that aren't doing quite as well in their career development in terms of being a referee. So they need to fix that so that there is some more consistency across the board with respect to the WNBA. Or we're going to continue to get these planes complaints, and we're going to continue to see things that happen like they happen to Cheryl Reeves, which I'll let you go ahead and educate the audience

Graydon Prescott 5:52
on. Okay, so we're moving on from the ACES fever, even though this is the Las Vegas show, and I am going to go out on a limb and say, the ACES win game five at home to win the series. But don't be surprised. They better hope they do, yes, but don't be surprised if they don't. Now moving on to where the real controversy lies. Minnesota Phoenix. Minnesota wins game one comfortably. Yes, they were up pretty much the whole game in Minneapolis. In Minneapolis Game Two, Minnesota, I'm not letting them off the hook. Minnesota should have won game two. Unquestionably, they should have won game I don't care what the referees did. I don't care what they were complaining about. You're up 20 points. You should not lose the game. Correct? At home, correct? They lose by six in overtime. Okay. Then there's game three. Game Three, the Phoenix. Mercury won by eight and outscored the links 21 to nine in the fourth quarter. Quarter, yes, but that's not where the controversy lied. The controversy lied when Cheryl Reeves went in, and I quote, I want a call for a change of leadership at the league level, when it comes to officiating posting bad for the game, the officiating crew that we had tonight for the leadership to deem those people, three people, semi final playoffs worthy, is freaking malpractice. And she didn't say freaky No, she didn't correct. We talked about how dangerous it can be. You're hearing it from other series. You're hearing from other coaches. You're hearing Becky Hammond talk about, when you let the physicality happen, people get hurt, there's fights. And this is the look that our league wants for some reason. That was a quote. This is a quote. Yes, Cheryl Reeve, head coach of the Minnesota links, who was suspended for game four his comments. She was ejected from Game three after going ballistic responding to a non call. On, on, on. Alyssa Thomas against Nafisa colleague, Nafisa was dribbling. Alyssa Thomas stole the ball. They banged knees. Nafisa rolled her ankle. No call. Alyssa Thomas went to the other end and got a layup. Here's what I will say. That's play specifically. Was not a foul. It just wasn't a foul. She picked her clean. Nafisa ruled her ankle. That's not Alyssa Thomas's fault. Bumping knees after the fact that the ball was already tipped aways incidental contact. Hence, not a foul. That's a clean play. Okay, so I don't think she was justified.

K.B. 8:00
I've seen it as well, and the poking away of the ball was clean. I do not think that the contact that took Nafisa out was incidental. I think that Alyssa Thomas has kind of a history of this. She's a very physical player, and in a situation like that where a person gets taken out, yes, you got the ball clean. I don't know how you can come away from a play with either a broken ankle or fractured ankle, or whatever

Graydon Prescott 8:29
it is dealing but she already injured the ankle earlier in the year. It was already she was playing on a weak angle without an ankle brace, okay,

K.B. 8:35
but if you look at her foot placement, she was not going to fall on that play, right? She came around a screen from Heidi and Heideman cleared out, so she was clear of thesis pathway I get, and I do understand the people that say, Hey, maybe this should have been a clean call. I think the league came out on Twitter, or x, what it's called now, and said that it could, that it should have been or that the call was correct, that it shouldn't have been called. But I disagree with that, I and that doesn't mean that I'm right, but I saw what everybody else is seeing. And I just don't know how you can level a player like that and and have that be a no call independent of whether or not, like it's not clean if you touch a person, if you if you take a person out, I don't know how that can be constituted as clean when a clean rip is when you don't touch a person. So one of them is unclean, either not touching the person, which is, to me, is a clean rip, or there's contact. And if there's contact, I don't know that that's clean. There's lots of times where a person blocks a shot and the follow through, or their actions with their body, maybe being out of control ends up in a foul. That happens all the time. So in this play in that moment. I don't think it was egregious, but it was determinative, and that's the problem that I have with it. I thought that they should have gone over, taken a look at that play and maybe not egregious, not a take foul. It wasn't a flagrant or anything like that, but I do think it should have been, that it should have risen to the level of a common foul, but that is. Just, that's

Graydon Prescott 10:00
just me. In my opinion, it was, I think, I don't think that was a foul. That's fair. That's fair. I looked at the play a couple of times just now, sure, while you were talking, and I get the bumping knees. You know, you can't really take a player out. But she clearly went for the ball. She didn't hit Nafisa in the arm. She got all ball correct, and then the FISA forward momentum is already falling forward. Alyssa Thomas is going the other way, because she already ripped the ball out of her hands. They collide, and Nafisa gets the worst of

K.B. 10:29
it. Let me ask you, when a person goes out, jumps out to block a three, and this harkens back to Kawhi Leonard and Julia, when a person goes out to block a three, whether or not there is contact. When they call that as a foul, why are they calling

Graydon Prescott 10:47
it's a different play. They they say the new rule is, you're encroaching the landing zone, the landing space. It's different when you're dribbling and open the open court. She was Nafisa was coming. She wasn't attempting a shot. She was dribbling to her left and then got and then over, extended with her left hand, and Alyssa Thomas did what you should do, reached in and

K.B. 11:07
stole both players have the right to real estate on the floor, correct, and so that presupposes, by not calling a foul, that presupposes, in my estimation, that Nafisa didn't have the right To the same real estate that Thomas had the right to, and I just don't believe that that is the way that that should be

Graydon Prescott 11:26
called. Well, by calling a foul year, presupposing that Alyssa Thomas didn't have the right to the real estate, and she's the defender, she just took the ball,

K.B. 11:33
which is consistent with what they call on the three point, that's a different call. It's a completely again, we can agree to disagree. I think it was a bad call that they didn't make the call. A player ended up getting injured. And because they don't officiate that tightly, they don't recognize the physicality that is happening all throughout the game, a player thinks that they can get away with something like that, and I do think that she got away with it. I do think that that is her history that she's kind of known for. Plays like that, whether or not people want to assign the label of being dirty. That has been the rub for Alyssa Thomas, that she's a little bit of a dirty player. And you know, there's an interesting side note, Hari McDonald and Sydney Colson, who both had season engine ending injuries. You know who they were playing at different times? You know who they were playing when those Ari McDonald was in practice when it happened, I think it was a game against Phoenix. I'm pretty sure she was at practice. Okay, well, I let the folks look it up, but I believe that both of those injuries occurred when they were playing the Phoenix merger. And I'd love to stand corrected on that. I know Sydney Colson

Graydon Prescott 12:36
did, Ari McDonald broke her right foot in a game against the Phoenix.

K.B. 12:40
Okay, that's what I thought. That's what I thought my researchers are on point. She She never gets anything wrong. So that's three players the same team who have been taken out on season ending injuries. I mean, how much of a convenient, not convenience, how much of a coincidence Do you expect me to tolerate? The three players? The Sidney Colson injury was non contact. But the point is that the referees allow so much to go on that the players get accommodated. They get used to that kind of wild physicality. And I think that's what Cheryl Reeves was talking about. And by the way, I think that was an egregious sanction for her. You have, you have your star player and MVP caliber players, you know, right up there with Asia Wilson in terms of who's going to win the MVP this this season. I do think they got it right because of what Asia did in the second half, see, second half of the season. I do think they got it right. But Nafisa was right there to lose that player in a game, and then to turn around and eject and suspend for a game their head coach is unconscionable, and I don't believe that would have happened in the NBA. You can suspend a coach and pick that up next season, as we see happen all the time, or suspend a player and pick it up next season. You don't have to punish them by or double punish punish them when they lose their star player, and then you turn around and you eject the coach, and you suspend the coach because you didn't like the comments that she made relative to officiating in the NBA, which several other coaches have made, probably all of them. And a really interesting side note, they find Stephanie white, the head coach of the fever because she said, I just agree with the comments that Cheryl Reeves has made, that this has been a problem. She got fined for that. Becky Hammond also agreed with him, so we'll see. We'll keep an eye out and see if Becky and Hammond ends up getting fined. But they're right about the lack of consistency with respect to the refereeing in the

Graydon Prescott 14:35
WNBA, it's been a real problem for the past couple of years. Last year, it cost to links a championship with a play that I've been over 100 million times with. Brianna Stewart, sure, yes, and the call there that should have been a no call, but still, like these coaches speaking out, should say something about to the WNBA about their officiating right games, because it's not consistent. You could see a team. And the teams aren't changing their play style from game to Correct, correct. But you know Phoenix, Phoenix shot 22 free throws in game three, the link shot 11, and the foul count was 14 to 15. So why do they get a left double the amount of free throw correct if there's one more foul called right on, Phoenix actually had the one more foul call, and they still shot 11 more free throws. So how does that make any sense? And then also, just across the league, the officiating has been poor for years. Now. This isn't a new issue, right? And you know, the coaches are finally starting to really speak out on it, and they have previously, and teams have previously spoken out, but now it's kind of getting universal,

K.B. 15:40
and I think that's the problem that you just put, you just hit the nail on the head, because it has been an issue for years and years and years. That's the frustration that this should have been resolved. The NBA players have to go through far more training than the WNBA referee. I'm sorry, referees, thank you. Thank you for the correction. The NBA referees have to go through far more training than the WNBA referees. I don't understand the dichotomy there. Like basketball is basketball, and the WNBA is a subset, a subsidiary, of the NBA. And so why would you want to put a lesser product on the floor in terms of the referees, that makes absolutely no sense, not only to me, but I think, obviously, it makes no sense to any of the head coaches.

Graydon Prescott 16:27
Yeah, and it's unfair to the game. It's unfair to the sport, it's unfair to the the organizations, and it's unfair to the players, because these players work their whole lives, just like NBA players Sure, sure to play basketball at the professional level, and it's really hard to stay in the WNBA. You see players get drafted in the second round all the time, only about 144 players. Uh huh. You see players get drafted in the second round, even late first round all the time. And you know, the next thing you know, you're like, Where the heck did they go? Never play a day in the league, right? Yeah. You know that happened a couple of years ago with Alexis Morris, and, you know, just last year with Liz kitley, um, these are players that in college were huge names, and they get to the WNBA, and we don't have a spot for you, right it, you know, it's hard to play in the NBA too, because there's just so many youth basketball players only. You know, 350 spots in the NBA. WNBA has less spots right now. There are less people playing girls high school basketball and girls college basketball, but it's still extremely difficult to play honestly. So the people who do make it, they deserve the same level of professionalism. With respect to referees. Yes, that, that, that is presented to the players, absolutely I agree. You get, I mean, the WNBA referees might as well be high school referees. They're not far from it. Yeah, it's, it's ridiculous. The NBA referees go through this intensive training program to get you ready to officiate NBA games. You have to know the book backwards and forwards, and you have

K.B. 17:53
to start absolutely in games, and you just don't go into the NBA referee

Graydon Prescott 17:59
and the WNBA, it's, completely different. So these players aren't being treated the same as the NBA players, which is really frustrating, right? Not just for the players, but for the coaches and for the fans as well.

K.B. 18:11
And another thing, and this is in you know, in defense of some of those referees, the pay disparity, right? They're not pouring the resources into the pay for WNBA referees. So a lot of them have second jobs. You know, they can't do this consistently. They can't pour resources into their the education of their profession, or further development in their in their profession, because they just don't make the money to do it. You know, their their sub $100,000 3040, $50,000 to be a WNBA referee. That's just not enough to for, you know, to pour into professional development. And so the WNBA needs to do and vis a vis the NBA needs to do a much better job with these referees, or it's going to start to hurt the product, and it's going to be obvious. And by the product, I mean the product on the floor and the way that fans are reacting to

Graydon Prescott 18:59
it, yeah, and, you know, it's just egregious. And it's been that way, sure, a long time. It's getting really hard to watch. It's great. And Prescott here on Sports prep live, there's been so much stuff going on in the sports world. Over the past seven days, we've talked about the WNBA, and quickly here in our last eight minutes of the program, we got to go over the Ryder Cup the black eye

K.B. 19:20
at Bethpage, wow. I know where you're going with this.

Graydon Prescott 19:23
Yeah. So I'll, first start off. I'm not gonna give a summary of it, but I'll just let everybody know the United States against Europe. Europe won the competition, right? 15 points to 13 points. You know, I have a lot about the way that it was played, because I am, you know, a major golf fan. That's not the story, long story. The story is the behavior of the American fans, and specifically those in Long Beach or Long Island in New York. New York, it was really bad, the way they treated the European players, the European families. Yes. In the press conference after winning, Justin Rose spoke about the treatment of Erica Stoll, the wife of Laurie McElroy, yes, yes. And she had beer, beers thrown at her, yeah. Like, what are we doing, I think. And this is a thing with American sports, and it's not this way anywhere else in the world, the way that we treat our athletes and their families, or the opposition's athletes and their families. LeBron James has talked about it people who play sports. You know, there's, there's lots of examples, baseball players, football players, the way they're treated by hands. Sometimes it's, it's really egregious. And Golf is a sport of class, of decorum. Yes, decorum. You don't behave like that at a golf tournament, right? It's just not what you do. It's not a college football game on a Saturday, and even that, you shouldn't be treating the players growing as if they're less than correct. But Golf is a whole nother world, and the way that the your the things that the Europeans had to endure, it was embarrassing. It really was, as an American, as an American, as an American golf fan, right, as somebody who was rooting for the United States, sure play to win the right? Yeah, I play the sport. Sure, it was really hard to sit there and root for the US to win that Ryder Cup. Now I still did, because I don't think you know the way the fans behave should change my perception of the players, but I also don't think that they spoke out enough. Thank you against what the fans were doing. Yes, you had Rory McIlroy about to hit an approach shot, and on the 17th hole, I believe it was, and fans yelling and yelling and yelling, and somebody said something really egregious that I'm not going to repeat on this show on air, and Rory had to turn around, stop his setup. He was about to hit the ball, stop his setup, turn around and tell the fans to shut them up,

K.B. 21:47
I think. And here's where the disconnect is. And maybe, I think some of the the European guys may feel a way about some of the American guys, even though the American guys did not invite this sort of behavior or bring it on in any way, shape or form, however, you do have a responsibility, and if you see your fan base conducting themselves in that way, it would have gone a lot further. It would have carried much more weight, much more gravitas. Had it been Scottie Scheffler or even, you know, one of the directors there, Tom Watson, someone comes out and says to the American audience members, spectators, knock it off. This is not the way that we conduct ourselves, not only here, but anywhere in the sport of golf. And I think a lot of this, and this is not a political show, but I think a lot of this harkens back to how crass people have been able to be towards one another, you know, starting from the presidency on down, that you hear these crass things said from a podium. You hear these crass things coming out of, you know, one office of leadership or another. And it happens going both directions, and people start to pick up on that. And it's not new, but it is the first time, you know, obviously malice in the palace. And there's all sorts of incidents,

Graydon Prescott 23:05
yeah, but at least that have occurred. At least the malice in the palace start with player against player, correct, correct. This was fans going at players who did nothing

K.B. 23:13
and and in what is likely regarded alongside tennis, and probably even more so than tennis as one of the most genteel sports, major sports that there are, that there is for this to happen, for there to be heckling and profanity and actual, you know, beer and other items thrown in the direction of the European Ryder Cup team is unbelievably outrageous. Yeah, and I hope that there is something that happens for the next Ryder Cup next year. And it's a much bigger deal, obviously, to the Europeans, than it is the Americans. The Americans are all about their individual titles. The Ryder Cup is a big deal, you know, for them, and I think it should be a big deal for us as well, but the way that the Americans behaved is really embarrassing. And for me, that took the cake out of all sports encounters this entire weekend. It was that big

Graydon Prescott 24:02
of a deal, I think. And this is not going to be something that a lot of grown folks agree with. But the way I see it, Alcohol should not be allowed at professional sport events. Again, like I think it's a real issue. A lot of people can't handle it. Yeah, it's really bad. Sure there have been interacting, you know, malice at the palace. Alcohol is involved. A beer is thrown at Ron our test LeBron, James scores 45 in Boston. What happens? Beers thrown at Sure? Demarcus Cousins. Beer thrown at him. You got the wives, the wives of golfers, just for beating the American team. Scotty Scheffler is the best golfer on the planet, bar none. He lost four times this weekend. Like that's not going to happen, a ton, but they're losing, and the Europe team was winning. They weren't being disrespectful. They were winning. And the treatment that they had to endure, and more importantly, that the families had to endure from the American fans, probably a lot of it having to do with alcohol. Sure, it's just not acceptable. So I think we need to it really needs to be considered that alcohol not be allowed at. Professional sport events,

K.B. 25:01
period. And that may be the answer. I don't think that will happen, but that may be the answer, because a lot of people just cannot hold their liquor. Yeah, right. And we see that, like you said, in sporting event after sporting event after sporting event. And unfortunately, we've come to expect it in some forums, you know, college basketball, college football, you know, they they're not, they're not above kicking somebody out of the stands and hearing about, you know, someone being removed from the stands. That's nothing new. It's like, oh, okay, you know, it happens darn near every competition that that there is out there across the country, but you are absolutely right for it to kind of seep into golf. Really, for me, it's just unconscionable, and it's something that I would have never thought of, because of, because it is a sport that is really predicated upon a long history of decorum. You know, quiet please when someone is just approaching the tee, and you can make all the noise and cheer after they strike the ball. But I just don't understand why this happened, and now I do begin to get a sense of why that phrase, the Ugly American, starts to become common

Graydon Prescott 26:05
in golf. That's a really big phrase, because you watch, just take the biggest European tournament, The Open Championship. The way the fans behave at the Open Championship is night and day from the way that the fans might behave at the US Open correct. It's night and day. And for those then the British players and the European players talk about it all the time. For those that don't know, The Open Championship was formally the brick called the British the British Open. Yes, the the European players talk about this ad nauseam. It's always, you know, the European fans were not yelling at players after they hit their shot. You know, there's clapping, it's a good shot, but you're not yelling, Get in the hole. And it's a 585 yard par five. Yes. Like, what are you doing? Yes, you know you hear, you hear, mashed potatoes, light the candle, whatever. Like, what are we doing? And it's all in America. So I mean the ugly American phrase dating back to, unfortunately, with the Dream Team and Charles Barkley, wow, yes, yes, yes to now, yes, with more more so the fans, it's really it needs to stop the behavior of American people in international competition, because it's humiliating. I agree, for those of us, 100%

K.B. 27:20
I do agree, and not to say that it exclusively happens in America, because there is a problem with, say, soccer in say Argentina. This is true where, if there is an African player in, usually African, literally, right from Nigeria, and you know, they love their football the way that we love our football. And we're talking about two different sports when I say that. But you know, if an African excels on the soccer field, and they often do, they're throwing banana peels on the soccer field. They're making ape noises. So we're not saying it exclusively happens, but

Graydon Prescott 27:53
we're the poster children. I agree, yeah, I agree. Before I wrap up here, good call with Oregon.

K.B. 27:59
Yes, yes. Danny, good call. Danny. Penn State,

Graydon Prescott 28:04
that's all. That's all the time we have today, unfortunately. But I got to give KB a shout out to recognize Yeah. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Sort of supposed to prep live. Next week the WNBA finals will start rebels. Yes, Go Rebels or no or no. Next week, the WNBA finals will have started, and we're gonna have a lot more to say. Hopefully Las Vegas is hosting and check

K.B. 28:27
out that Saturday game. UNLV rebels against Wyoming. Go Rebels,

Graydon Prescott 28:32
we're not losing. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of sports prep live. I'm Graydon Prescott, and don't forget to catch all of our episodes on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter at sports prep live. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai